I'm sorry but who is that mustached man in the stickie?

[alphafemale]

Did I miss something?

[gateley]

1. The guy from Deadwood, I think.

[Sal Minella]

12. Also played a Russian ambassador on West Wing, third season.

Versatile actor, indeed. In addition to being sexy.

[gateley]

14. I think I'm one of the only people on the planet who didn't watch

West Wring.

But I've seen him enough (isn't his name Ian McShane?) to agree wholeheartedly that he's a good actor and REALLY sexy!

[Sal Minella]

18. I fought watching it because I don't like being a sheeple, and just because so many people said

such wonderful things about it, I was pretty much determined not to like it.

Finally ordered Disc 1 Season I from Netflix and tonight finished the third season. I recommend it as an antidote to what we've been surviving the last seven years. It will make you feel better. It will painlessly teach you a lot about history and how government works (or is supposed to work). The throw-away one-liners are the funniest I've heard anywhere. And I'm in love with Toby.

West Wing has deeply-held beliefs behind it. My deeply-held beliefs, matter of fact. It reminds me why I bothered to register to vote in the first place.

That series will be around a long time, so no rush.

[gateley]

19. I avoid getting caught up in any weekly TV show because then I feel

chained to it. Never watched American Idol, for example. (I did watch Dancing With The Stars when Apolo Ohno was on, though. :-))

I will undoubetedly get West Wing now that I can get all the episodes in one clump.

I did that with Sleeper Cell (did you ever see that?). Watched the first season and waited breathlessly week to week, then the angst of waiting for the second season to begin... So I skipped the second season and bought the DVD when it became available.

I'm actually looking forward to The West Wing - I've only heard positive reviews. And lots of 'em!

[Sal Minella]

29. Just watched the trailer for "Sleeper Cell" on Netflix and added the first disc to my queue --

it looks good. And yes, if you enjoyed that, I'm sure you'll enjoy West Wing! (I don't have a TV so I always listen when other people recommend shows they've liked.)

[tekisui]

2. A character from Deadwood.

He owns the whorehouse/saloon.

[Orrex]

3. According to the image's "properties" when you right-click...

His name is 90x90.gif.

[SteppingRazor]

4. That's f'ing Swerengen for f-ck's sake!

(It's only funny if you have HBO and have seen Deadwood. He's basically one of the greatest villains in TV history.)

[Mabus]

6. That's Mr. Al f'ing Swerengen to you!

;)

I loved Al.

[SteppingRazor]

7. He was a f-cking c-c ksucker. But he was OUR f-cking c-cksucker.

:evilgrin:

[Mabus]

20. I loved how he used to berate the gimp every morning

and, yes, he was OUR f-cking c-ocksucker.

:thumbsup:

Edited to add: I'm so glad that Al's not a hooplehead or a degenerate t-t-licker!

[BrklynLiberal]

8. I read somehwere recently that they used the F-word more than any other show on TV ever did.

http://www.thewvsr.com/deadwood.htm

[Robeson]

11. You wouldn't have to read it anywhere, BrklynLiberal...

...you could just watch the show for about 10 minutes, and in that time, it would surpass any amount of times the f-word has ever been used on a TV show...;-)

[leftchick]

28. more like 10 seconds

and no one in the history of TV said COCKSUCKER better. :)

[bunkerbuster1]

25. What killed it for me was learning how historically inaccurate the usage was, in that series

I know, they were trying to present this as a gritty, unpleasant place with unpleasant people and the writing bordered on brilliant much of the time. Problem is, in the 1870s, that's not how people actually swore at one another, apparently...

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/deadwood.html

But "fuck" wasn't actually a swear-word back then. It was indecent, of course, but people only used it for the sexual act itself. Whereas swear-words are the ones that become detached from their literal meanings and float free as mere intensifiers. Swearing isn't using "fucking" when you're referring to sex, it's using it when you're talking about the weather.

In fact when you look up the word in Jonathan Lighter's magisterial Dictionary of American Slang, you discover that the all-purpose insult "fuck you" was a turn-of-the twentieth-century creation, and "go fuck yourself" isn't attested until 1920. "Fucked up" and "Don't fuck with me" didn't show up till around the time of the Second World War. And while people may have been emphasizing nouns with "fucking" from the 1890's, it wasn't until well into the century that you heard things things like "She fucking well better tell me" or "Get the fuck out of here," both "Deadwood" favorites.

The same holds for most of the other obscene words that you hear on "Deadwood." Back in the 19th century, people used "asshole" to refer to a bodily orifice and "cocksucker" to refer to someone who performs fellatio. But it was only in the 1920's that anybody thought to use them for a despicable person. And it was around the same time that the new word "motherfucker" was coined with roughly the same meaning.

Of course it isn't always easy to tell exactly when these uses of obscene words came into general use -- they're not the sorts of items you run into in Henry James. But actually there are plenty of 19th-century examples of the F-word being used in a literal way in letters, pornographic novels, and slang dictionaries, and other swear words show up pretty frequently as well. And if "fuck" and the rest had been used in an extended way, it's a safe bet those uses would have showed up in the same kinds of sources.

The words those "Deadwood" characters would actually have used had religious overtones rather than sexual or scatalogical ones. They would have peppered their speech with "goddamn," "Jesus," and particularly "hell," a word that 19th-century Americans were famous for using with a dazzling virtuosity -- "a hell of a drink," "What in hell did that mean?," "hell to pay," "The hell you will," "hell-bent," "Hell, yes," "like a bat out of hell," "hell's bells," and countless others.

[alphafemale]

16. NO HBO.

Hell Comcast Internet and a pretty slack TV plan is already nearly a C-Note a month.

And I actually feel better that I didn't miss some major news story.

I actually wondered for a second if that is what Mark Spitz looks like now.

Since he's in the news again and ever so slightly bitter.

[Bicoastal]

5. McCAIN!

Er, McShane.

Ian McShane as saloonkeeper Al Swearengen on "Deadwood."

[blogslut]

9. Ian McShane

An actor I've had a crush on for decades.

[Mabus]

21. Me too

Ever since I saw in Lovejoy.

[blogslut]

22. I got ya beat

I swooned over him in a 1977 television production entitled "Jesus of Nazereth" - he played Judas (natch). I went bonkers for those light eyes and black hair.

Sigh. Dreamy. Dreamy.

:hi:

[Mabus]

26. and he only got better as he got older.

Swoon.

:hi:

[Liberal In Texas]

23. Lovejoy...

one of the best TV series - ever.

[Mabus]

27. I wish it would start playing again

It was good. I admit that I was flipping through the channels one day, saw Ian and stopped surfing. I kept watching because the show was good and I became a fan that day.

[Lint Head]

10. Ian McShane is a liberal that has said some fantastic things

about Georgie Porgy and Dickless Chainy :dem:

[Canuckistanian]

13. I thought it was Oliver Reed

Shows how much I know.

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Here they are together... There is sort of a resemblance

Ian Mcshane


Oliver Reed


Here is the late Mr. Reed in a Deadwood type of moustache.

[Canuckistanian]

17. Very similar, indeed

No wonder I was confused. Although that's not an unusual state in itself....

[TexasObserver]

24. Swegin, Wu ... heng dei!

cock-suckah!!

You had to be there.

Deadwood is one of them most charming series ever, but the language was off the chart. It was like being in the military, where every sentence contains at least one "fuck" in it.

I'll never forgive HBO for killing it and leaving us all dangling. Heartless fucking bastards!!